Curriculum Corner

Westwood Heights School District May 2016

Curriculum Corner

Westwood Heights School District May 2016

Testing, Testing, and more testing!

State testing is almost complete!

Update:

Currently, elementary and middle school are wrapping up M-Step testing in grades 4 and 7. This year additional testing at the elementary and high school was added for district accountability (* New Assessments 2015-16).

State Testing

*K-2 grade (Early Literacy and Numeracy)

3-8 grade M-Step

*9-10 grade Practice SAT

11th grade SAT/WorkKeys/M-Step

District Testing

Grade level/content area benchmark assessment

DiBels - elementary

Scholastic Reading Inventory - elementary, middle, and high school

The district testing is currently taking place as we come to the closing of the school year. Building administrators will report out with data sets shortly.

MDE Early Literacy Initiative Grant

The Michigan Department of Education has approved the grant application for McMonagle Elementary submitted in April 2016. The funding of this grant will be used to purchase early literacy resources and materials for students in grade K-2 to extend literacy experiences within their homes. Each student will receive a back-pack of literacy resources during the 2016-17 Open House.

Next Generation Science Standards Series

Teacher representatives from each building will attend the NGSX conference at the GISD for a 6 day workshop. The group will begin summer-work in early July to work on aligning new science standard curriculum K-12 grades.

GEARp2takeACTION Teacher Training

Middle School teachers attended the professional development training on April 26, 2016. Through the districts collaboration efforts with GEARup2LEAD, the professional development was a free training offered to WWH teachers.

Teachers were trained:

How to use the Heroic Imagination Project Bystander Module to help build a heroic culture. Heroic cultures are cultures where everyone sees themselves as heroic leaders and are not bystanders when problems arise.

At the end of the session, teachers were given the curriculum module, companion materials, and resources to use with your classroom, staff, and organization.

MiELA Network Summer Professional Development

A group of ten McMonagle Elementary teachers will be attending this training in late June. The workshop is set up for educators to work specifically with MAISA units. By participating in this professional development opportunity, individuals will be equipped with key information to implement writing and/or reading units aligned with the rigorous instructional demands of the Common Core State Standards.

Google Classroom Ready!

Westwood Heights School District is now connected to It’s own Google Domain. This is a powerful a resource. This setup is prepping the district to be able to use Google Classroom for the 2016-17 school year.